This invention is concerned with a shovel device for loading and delivering disk-shape sheets of dough from one processing station to another, e.g. for transferring the sheets from a resting shelf to an oven. It is believed that the invention can be most effectively applied to mechanized pizza-making equipment, such as described, for instance, in WO-IB00/00023.
In known mechanized pizza-making equipment, the transfer of pizzas from one processing step to the next is generally performed by means of some kind of continuous conveyor belt, or by means of a set of trays shifting along a path. Whether with conveyor belts or with trays, however, each pizza rests permanently on the spot where it was originally placed, and it is its support which is shifted.
These known approaches, however, place restraints on the design of the entire system. For instance, a conveyor belt will bar the use of a conventional oven, and require a tunnel-type oven. Moreover, a conveyor belt does not allow a pizza to be flattened out from a lump of fresh dough, so that it is necessary to start processing from previously flattened pizzas. The same situation more or less prevails with other continuous transfer systems.
Another drawback of continuous transfer systems is that they generally are built to go through the oven, and therefore have to be built so that they can stand high temperatures. This is a further constraint in the choice of the operating mechanisms, and it increases, in general, the cost of the system.
It should also be noted that most known transfer mechanisms, particularly conveyor belts, are difficult to clean, and therefore have sanitary problems.
The main object of the invention is therefore to provide a shovel device for loading and tansferring pizzas from one processing station to another, by which a pizza can be loaded from a resting shelf and transferred to another resting support, without rumpling or mishandling the pizza, similarly to a shovel wielded by a pizza-cook.
Another object is to provide a device that is easy to subject to an overall cleaning.
The invention achieves the above and other objects and advantages, such as will appear from the following disclosure, with a shovel device for loading and transferring sheets of dough, particularly for pizzas, from one processing station to the next, and having the features recited in claim 1.
Other advantageous features of the invention are recited in the subordinate claims.